Rhetorical Analysis of McPhee’s “In Search of Marvin Gardens” By: Amber Kuhlman Monopoly has been around since the 1930’s. Skill and patience are needed to conquer your opponent. John McPhee is one of the few people with the skills and patience that allow his opponent and him to easily finish a single game in under a half-hour. While playing a single game of monopoly, he contemplates his next move before he even starts. He realizes that some monopoly properties are more valuable than others are and could help him win the game. So how does John McPhee choose to visualize the properties as he does? This analysis is over a piece of literature from the nonfiction book Pieces of the Frame, which was published in 1975 in New York by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. This book is 308 pages long, but the passage “In Search for Marvin Gardens” is 15 pages long. I will form a comprehensive examination of McPhee’s “In Search of Marvin Gardens” using narrative criticism. I am using narrative criticism because it will allow me to show why McPhee chooses to visualize the properties of the monopoly game through aspects such as setting, characters, narrator, events, temporal relations, casual relations, audience, and theme. First I will take a look at the setting and tell how the setting is created and how it changes throughout the passage. Next I will at the characters in the passage and explain how they are presented. Third, I will look at the narrator and see how he affects the story. I will then look at temporal relations and casual relations. Next I will Amber Kuhlman 1 English 105H12 see what type of audience was this passage wrote for. Finally I will what the major theme of the narrative was, and what this theme means. In McPhee’s “In Search of Marvin Gardens” there is more than more setting. The first setting is the real world setting in which John McPhee and his friend play games of Monopoly. In this setting McPhee and his friend play over a thousand games of Monopoly over the years. This setting is not highly developed or detailed. For the second setting John McPhee daydreams about what the Monopoly properties would look like if a town actually existed. When playing an actual game with his friend whenever he passes or lands on a particular monopoly he describes the surrounding. He starts by going down by Vermont Avenue and points out the crumbling buildings and the shattered glass. McPhee points out that dogs run up and down the street and yet no people are heard or seen. Next comes St. Charles Place. Hotels, buildings, and mansions once lined the streets, but now all are torn down. A few streetlights shine upon the empty lots. Illinois comes next, where two story buildings line the streets, and is home to the African American population. Indiana Avenue is where the railroad is a vital part to survival. The people of this area seem to think that the railroad is the only way to travel. They quickly discard anyone who uses any other means of transportation. On Kentucky Avenue most of the retail shops and business are located. Amber Kuhlman 2 English 105H12 Pennsylvania starts the journey back towards the sea. The Hotel Astoria is located here. Between Pacific and Boardwalk the Aristocrat and Colton Manor hotels have blinking vacancy signs. Boardwalk is the home of the Holiday Inn, which has twenty-three stories. The main characters are John McPhee and his friend that play Monopoly together. Both the main characters portray the trait of being clever. While playing a game of Monopoly, both characters are very quick and precise. They finish many games under a half-hour, showing that cleverness is needed to win in such a short period of time. The narrator is John McPhee, who is also one of the main characters. He is presented directly to the audience. He is the one that is in search of Marvin Gardens and he directly tells the audience what to see or hear. McPhee holds all the power in deciding what he wants his audience to see. The events that take place include McPhee and his friend playing Monopoly over a thousand times over the years. Another event that takes place is as McPhee plays Monopoly and he goes around the board, he visualizes walking through a make believe city that is set up like the Monopoly game. The temporal relations happen over many years as they compete against each other. In the second setting, the temporal relations happen over about a day. The casual relations are the causes and effect relationships that are established in the narrative. One obvious cause and effect relationship is when Amber Kuhlman 3 English 105H12 McPhee lands on a property on the Monopoly board, he visualizes in his head what that property in contrast to others would look like. For example, McPhee goes down by Mediterranean and Baltic, which are the primary avenues of the ghetto. Most the buildings are vacant and toxic wastes overrun the streets. The audience that McPhee intends to read this passage, is people who are interested in the game of Monopoly, and people who are very imaginative. The overall theme of McPhee’s “In Search of Marvin Gardens” is the Monopoly game itself and how McPhee chooses to visualize the properties as he does. McPhee chooses to visualize the Monopoly properties as actual city streets and avenues. He uses vivid description to make his audience feel as if they were part of the city. His setting creates a scene that shows the vacant rundown building to the high dollar house developments. Amber Kuhlman 4 English 105H12